Autism-World

We came back from horseback riding therapy for autism. My daughters respite worker and a little old lady who works at the stable was leading her horse. The horse got spooked and took off running and it ripped the rieigns out of our respite workers hands and out of the little old lady?? hands who was leading the horse but it took longer for her to let go so the horse dragged her a few feet.

I was watching and screaming whoa, not that it did any good but I didn?? know what to do to get the horse to stop. It was very scary and I felt helpless because my daughter was on the horse as it took off running. She was laughing and enjoy the ride until his speed threw her from the horse. I was horrified as I watched her fly through the air. All I have to say is my little girl is one tough cookie.I thought she was going to get back up and say let?? do that again. She didn?? but she didn?? seem very effected by the fact that she had just gotten thrown from the horse but my respite worker was so upset she was crying because she felt it was her fault that my daughter got thrown. When my daughter saw her crying she began crying. So I right away went over to calm our respite worker down while my husband was on the ground with my daugther. I did feel that it was better for all of us to remain calm rather than get upset because it would be harder to find out if my daughter actually got hurt. She appears to be ok. I think she is going to be sore tomorrow but she was not affected much by that whole incident. But I have to say being the one standing on the sidelines watching it, it all looked very scary. We have one more week left of the fall sessions and I don?? know if I am going to go back.

They always tell the kids to keep their feet in the stirrups but I think that is scary to do that because if my daughters feet got stuck in those stirrups the horse would have dragged her as he raced around that barn. The other thing I don?? like is that the lady who runs it doesn?? seem to really understand autism at all. She talks to the kids like they totally understand everything she says and honestly my daughter can be as unpredicatable as that horse so I think this place needs to have a better understanding of autism and also their trained people should be leading those horses and those who know the rules of the barn so that they don?? spook the horse but us parents who know nothing about horses are out there leading them. It just seems way too dangerous of a combination. She tried telling me that this has never ever happened but I find that hard to believe. The horses they are using seem old and tired out. None of them wanted to trot.

Thank God she is Ok.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Autism Stories.